I presume it may be difficult almost like any other language that you start from scratch at an older age. But considering that English is the most popular and most of the sites are written in it ( not to mention the computers' applications and operating systems ) I don't believe it hard to acquire . Also English is a must , because if you intend to learn other languages it will enable you to do so considering the vast amount of materials available in English which you won't have the same chance to use if you only use your own mother tongue ( except if it is Chinese perhaps ) .
Of course not!
recently I try to learn foreign languages and I simply realized that English is the easiest thing to learn.
(Though I found the way to study languages properly by studying English.)
It is such a widely used language and You can easily find out the one who speaks English.
(in anywhere)
and also there are a lot of materials which make it possible to enjoy learning.
@Jason33: Not to be a jerk, but one thing is making yourself understood and another is speaking without mistakes and with the diction, flow, and rich vocabulary of a native speaker. I can describe almost anything in my target language, but Iām not as efficient nor as natural as a native. Thatās something that takes many thousands of hours to do.
Yes and no.
Learning the basics of English might be easier than learning the basics of German, Russian or Chinese, but speaking english like a native speaker is pretty difficult.
IĀ“m a native speaker of German, so I can only tell you why itĀ“s difficult for germansā¦
- In German, thereĀ“s no extra tense to describe the difference between āI play the guitarā and āIĀ“m playing the guitar.ā English seems to have more tenses in general.
- English has a huge vocabulary with a lot of loan words. Guessing the meaning of āĆ¼berlebenā in German is easy. ItĀ“s āoverā + āliveā. In French itĀ“s āsurvivreā, āonā + āliveā, to live on. Guessing the meaning of āsurviveā is impossible unless you speak French (or maybe another romance language).
- English spelling is a mess. If you know the German alphabet and a few pronounciation rules, youĀ“ll be able to pronounce most words correctly. If you do that in English, youĀ“ll sound like a taxi-driver.
Besides that, most people learn English as their first foreign language and IMHO the L2 is almost always the hardest one. Learning French seems much easier to me than learning english, although most people would argue that French is much more complicated.
Greetings, Paul
I would wager that English is relatively easy to learn to a basic or intermediate level but as with all languages (maybe not Esperanto, right?) it is exponentially difficult to reach a near-native or native level unless you live many years abroad. It could be a lot more difficult if it had cases, gender, and a difficult verb conjugation system, so thankfully for you guys it doesnāt!
@Paul: Isnāt French much easier than English for pronunciation since there are more useful rules and less exceptions like in English? In other ways like verb conjugation and gender, it is obviously much harder than English. (though that isnāt hard to beat since English verb conjugation is kind of a joke and we donāt have gender)
Romance language speakers should probably have an easier time with English vocab, I would think. Latin words (and French) are the two biggest sources of words in English, if memory serves.
@cazasigiloso
I agree with you on french pronunciation. When it comes to genders, I actually like them.
They add some variety to the language. It takes some effort to learn them, but a lot of times you can guess them - words with ā-tionā for example, seem to always be feminine. Besides that, if you hear āle ventā often enough, āla ventā will just sound wrong^^
Verb conjugations are pretty cool, actually. If somebody says āJe trouveraiā¦ā (I will find) you know that itĀ“s first person āfuturā, even if you donĀ“t hear the ājeā. If somebody says āI will findā and you donĀ“t hear the āIā youĀ“ll have no idea āwhoā the other person is talking about.
Things like conjugations, cases (etc.) seem to add clarity, make something else easier or at least add variety to a language. IĀ“m sure that people donĀ“t use cases or conjugations to stop foreigners from mastering their language, but because they find them useful.
And youĀ“re right about the vocabulary. Quite a lot of english words seem to have french/latin or germanic originā¦
das Haus, der Freund, die Hand, das Fleisch - house, friend, hand, flesh
unique, la priĆØre, le pouvoir, raison - unique, prayer, power, reason
English would definitely be harder with gender. As it is, people donāt have to remember the gender of the word which makes it simpler. Apparently it isnāt too uncommon for second language learners to mix them up. I was surprised when a native Spanish speaker told me recently that their adult child constantly mixes up gender in Spanish when the person was most likely spoken to in Spanish at home. 
Hmmmā¦so English is a germanic language, with 26% germanic words, thatĀ“s weird.
And yes, genders would obviously make it more difficult to speak perfectly, but I donĀ“t think that getting the gender of a word wrong could often lead to misunderstandings.
IĀ“m pretty sure, that 99-point-something percent of the germans I know, remember the correct gender of every word they can use actively. Somebody who lives in america and āwas most likely spoken to in spanish at homeā might not be comparable to a ārealā native speaker.
Yes, if you get the gender wrong the message is still conveyed. But just making yourself understood isnāt enough for a lot of motivated language learners. āMe want food. You have food? You, me, eat food. Us happy? Smile?ā
I think this sentence gets everything across but it sounds terrible! 
Making yourself understood is not enough for any language learner I have met. I doubt there are many people who would be happy with just being understood no matter how dedicated they are. Everybody who learns a language wants to speak with few mistakes and in a natural way.
@ Cazagiloso
ItĀ“s impressive how you went from āincorrect genderā to āgoogle translator englishā within three sentences^^
@ ColinJohnstone
Sure, but people want a lot of things. IĀ“d like to speak āperfectā english, but IĀ“m not motivated enough to make the necessary effort. I can communicate (as you can see) and thatĀ“s enough for me.
In the end it all comes down to having a method that works for you, being willing to invest a lot of time and having a positive attitude. Complaining about genders never accomplished anything, as far I know.
Yes, I agree with you Colin. But not everybody wants to be SUPER good at a language. I know how many hours it takes to reach proficiency in a foreign language and thus I donāt want to reach a high level or speak perfectly in French, the second foreign language that I will have studied.
(I havenāt read other answers yet) As far as I know, basic or beginners English is easy for pretty much anyone but the intermediate/advanced English is where it gets extremely difficult. Also afaik, it goes the opposite way for other languages, so just getting the basics can be difficult but once you have them down progressing to intermediate/advanced becomes easier. It probably goes without saying that it also depends where the learner is from too, whether they are German or Chinese.
Yes, Blotheb is right: to reach a basic level in English and to start with speaking is easier than in German or Russian.
But to reach the advanced level in English is not easier than to reach an advanced level in any other languages.
English is a language; it is harder for some people from certain cultures than others from different cultures. There is something that sets English apart though - its universiality.
I have been in Paris for a week now. If you live in a city like Paris and you canāt learn English, you are doing something wrong. I am living with French family in a relatively non-touristy quarter, and I hear nearly as much English in the streets as I do French.
Also, in case you have not noticed, the US dominates just about every media based industry.
It is the same in Vienna. I hear and read English everywhere. People here then say that English is really easy to learn, but I suspect it is just because they are being exposed to it all the time.
@djvlbass: āā¦If you live in a city like Paris and you canāt learn English, you are doing something wrong. I am living with French family in a relatively non-touristy quarter, and I hear nearly as much English in the streets as I do Frenchā¦ā
Thatās interesting. And you say this is an area not visited much by tourists? So is the English you hear typically coming from native speakers of French talking to other French people!?
(If so, I canāt help wondering whether the French language is even going to survive in the longer termā¦)
That must be in an English suburb thenā¦ Really, why two natives of a given language would speak to each other in another one? Except to joke or show-off? Even if Parisians are weird, theyāre not that weird.
France is the most visited country in the world, Paris is itās capital, there are tourists everywhere.
I guess you have seen this before, but the list from Foreign Service Institute might be an interesting way to compare difficulty and similarity. The list has several issues, but may be a pointer about the difficulty level experienced by different people.
The list made me put Dutch on my own language learning plan. For now, I am concentrating on Russian though.
My grandmotherās apartment (Where I am staying) is in Le Marais. Definetly not a suburb. Admittedly a little touristy. Iād say I hear such a percentage of English because the French are on vacation.
I donāt hear English spoken between the French, but I do hear it used whenever there is a non french person present. For example, in each bar I usually see atleast one Anglophone or Northern European surrounded by a big group of Frenchies wanting to practice their English.
Its disgusting, in my not-so-humble opinion, the way tourists donāt make any attempt to use any French. I have even yet to hear one order in French.
I was in Nancy for three weeks. Much less English, much better practice. If there are any french learners reading, Iād reccomend waiting to go to Paris after you have a good level. No one speaks English to me once they realize my French is better than their English.